A very nice trip report.
I leave from home at 7:30AM on the Bayporter to SFO. Going to Hotel School in the French –speaking part of Switzerland, Swiss Romande, it doesn’t take long to identify the Bayporter driver as clearly French. My family name is like ‘Smith’ in French so he says something to me in French, and I respond, a bit automatically, as for 2 ˝ years I had to speak French; I guess I remember enough to have a conversation with him. Another passenger boarding later is going to France and they embark on an endless conversation about politics, the world, etc. allowing me to exit the conversation and listen to some music on my iPod on the way to the airport.
I have, in the past, taken the shuttle from Berkeley to SFO with the same French gentleman as the driver. He was indeed very well informed and opinionated about world politics and had a very colourful way of expressing himself.